MIA
by Door Is Ajar
Summary: A routine expedition beyond the walls turns into a nightmare when Mikasa Ackerman turns up missing.


The mission was one of the best yet. A simple one, a quick expedition of the Survey Corps in an attempt to monitor some Titans. There had been a few cases of large groups clustering together, coming within a mile of the wall but never closer. Coming from Hanji, it was an observation everyone took with open ears. She knew more than just a thing or two about them, and it made her worry seem all the more understandable.

The expedition had minimal loses: five dead and one missing. It was a phenomenal job, and they had been able to kill off two large groups.

All except for the missing soldier. The news broke to Eren first, and he predictably couldn't believe what he had heard.

"Mikasa Ackerman is currently missing in action. We will send out another expedition tomorrow in the cause of disposing more Titan clusters. As a side job, a small search group will look for Ackerman."

It took a moment to sink in. And then, a weak, garbled, "What?"

"I'm sorry, but the retrieval team was unable to locate her body or any of her belongings. Based on that and her skills, we can safely assume she is still alive."

Only after restraining Eren from searching personally for her did he finally let the final remnants of the events sink in.

The girl worth a hundred soldiers was _lost_ , somehow separated from the group. And yet the man worth half a soldier had the audacity to inform him of something so important? He punched his pillow, now alone in his room and sitting to dwell with a knot constricting his lungs and making him want to burst into tears.

The following day he requested to be on the search party, to which Armin accompanied. The boys were granted their wish; but after twelve hours of hiding in shadows and searching for something that was seemingly non-existent, hope had dwindled to a flicker and allowed an emotionless retreat back to base.

The process continued for another five days, and by then the massive groups of Titans had been diminished. Only three further search groups were sent out within the next two weeks to retrieve anything and everything they could with the threatening Titans reduced greatly. The death toll had ended in the twenties, and a total of seventeen bodies had been found in all of the excursions.

Mikasa's whereabouts were still uncertain.

Eren had lost most of his hope into the fourth week, although he still felt a jump in his stomach every time a party returned. There was still a possibility of Mikasa being alive. Otherwise her value held no significance compared to the worthless soldiers he was surrounded by... And Eren just couldn't see her dying an unknown death- not when she was so important not just to Armin and him, but to humanity, as well.

It was twenty six days after Mikasa had seemingly vanished that the final search party was going to be sent out. Another series of trips would not occur for another month: just long enough for Hanji to collect more information for it. Throughout the day, individual members returned on horseback, carrying a body if one were found. Others came back if they had sighted a Titan, asking for another member or two for precaution to take it down.

It was quickly approaching nine, and the trip would end in a mere hour. Of course, Eren berated himself for not forcing his way harder into a slot to look. However, as he sat inside after finishing what he could of diner, one of the double doors busted open, revealing a tired and worn man.

"Eren Jeager!" he yelled, still catching his breath. "Mikasa Ackerman has been found! Meet up at the horse stall immediately!"

With that, the man had left. Eren was in too much of a hurry to care that he flipped over his chair and left the door swinging madly behind him.

Within his range of site once he arrived at the stalls was three horses rushing up to him: the last of the party. He squinted his eyes, but they nearly bulged out of his head upon noticing the girl on the middle horse, leaning into the man riding. It was clearly Mikasa, but he could pinpoint she had lost her brown coat, as well as her green corps cape. The man, apparently, had given away his to her, the material covering her like a blanket. They horses slowed down until they were within feet from him. Eren, though, was already making his way over to Mikasa.

"Slow down there, kid," the soldier spoke, putting a hand it front of his face. It was a calm and quiet tone, which left Eren slightly confused.

Eren stood aghast for moment, then turned on him. "What do you mean to-"

The man leaned down further, covering his mouth with his hand. Eren yanked it away and was already prepared to scream again when the soldier broke his outrage.

His face remained serene, almost pitiful, and it left Eren with more mixed thoughts swirling around his head. "Listen, kid, your friend here is banged up. Do you know how hard it was just to get her on this horse?" His speech paused, even if the question were rhetorical. Eren shook his head anyway. "It took a good twenty minutes. She kept complaining; no matter how any of us tried to pick her up, she kept crying."

He halted again, keeping his emotions in check. "She somehow managed to survive on her own up til this point, and I'm sure no one here besides Captain Levi and Commander Erwin can do that. But, kid, she wound up nearly killing herself in the process." A sigh. "In honesty I'm just prolonging this as long as possible. I don't want to get her _off_ the horse."

Eren, he realized, watched as the soldier finally and truly met his eyes. "I'm sure you can help me. I'll lift her down to you, alright?"

He was stunned into silence, and he resorted to shaking his head in confirmation.

The man turned around, looking down at the weakened girl who had clasped onto his abdomen for dear life. "Hey, Mikasa, you awake?"

His soft tone was strange, at least for Eren to listen to. This soldier had to be nearly thirty, though, almost double his own age. This guy understood these things more clearly that him. And apparently talking as if Mikasa were a small child was something he had learned along the way.

She gave out a small whine in the process.

"Hey, Eren's here. He's going to take you to the infirmary."

"Eren?" she mumbled, and her eyes opened enough to try and find him.

She found a big goofy smile on his face, something he couldn't help. Not after assuming on multiple accounts that she was nothing short of dead.

"Yeah, you ready? I'll try to lift you down as easy as I can, so just relax." He then leaned forward towards Eren. "Swing her leg around," he instructed.

Eren quickly rushed to the other side, gently lifting a leg over the horse. She bit her lip, assuring that not a sound escaped. He made around back to the other side, and the soldier was already wrapping an arm around her back. Eren joined, one arm under her legs and the other behind her back. She was slowly dropped into Eren's arms and completely off the horse.

Tears tracked their way down her face all the way to the infirmary, accompanied by a distressed Eren at the unrelenting knowledge he was only walking- and hurting her in the process.

* * *

Three days had passed since Mikasa's return. To say the least, Eren was losing control of the situation entirely.

He never would have thought one of his friends would become such an emotional and physical wreck, most of all Mikasa.

The first night she was immediately put under. Simple movements- both by herself and by others onto her- left her in pain and made her cautiously beg them to stop. She didn't wake until noon the following day. Her eyes opened to Eren leaning over her, having expected her to rejoin him. Armin stood slightly behind him with an obvious loss of how to aid his friend.

"Mikasa!" was the first thing Eren exclaimed once her eyes met his. "How are you feeling?" he quickly asked, before continuing. "The doctors said you had a whole list of broken and bruised parts- they didn't think you were going to make it through the night."

There was a small pause, just long enough for Mikasa to comprehend what had just been flung at her. "What'd they do?"

It was Armin who stepped forward. "Your left arm and right shoulder were bruised pretty bad, nearly broken. They had to pop the bone for you shoulder back into place, too. Five of your ribs were broken, so it may hurt to sit up or move around for a while. Your left leg was also broken. You sprained your right ankle, and the doctors assumed both of those injuries were during the same event."

It didn't make the information anymore welcoming for Armin to be explaining it to any of them. "There were several more injuries, but the doctors would be better at explaining precisely what those are."

There was an unwelcome silence that entered the room following, but Eren attempted to mend the patch. "What happened Mikasa? How... How did you get lost in the forest?"

Even Armin was shocked at Eren's question. On the list of things to not do to Mikasa (including "Do not move her," and "Do not touch any injured areas.") Armin recalled "Do not question her."

When his thoughts returned to the bed-ridden girl, he was quickly put into a state of shock. "Mikasa?"

She had seemed to break out in a sweat, and she had lifted her right arm- though tenderly- to her forehead.

"Hey, Mikasa, are you alright?" Eren had asked.

"I'm fine, it's just... Can I be alone? Just for a little bit?" she requested.

Eren- who seemed prepared- opened his mouth to reply, only for Armin to cover it. "Sure, Mikasa. We'll be back in an hour, okay?"

Her attention was locked on the sheets in front of her, and only the slight nod of her head gave confirmation to the two boys that she had heard them.

They found her with a pillow on top of her head, having cried herself to sleep.

* * *

The second day, surprisingly, it was Captain Levi who entered the room- not a doctor.

Armin and Eren jumped to their feet to salute, while Mikasa remained still, if not surprised.

"Relax, you two," he muttered out before stepping over to Mikasa's bedside.

"I don't know what idiot thought that you would be able to move for questioning, but that's out of the question," he stated. He faced Eren and Armin once more. "You two will act as guards. Not a single person is to enter this room aside from a doctor, understood?"

Eren clenched this hands by his side but obeyed.

A good hour passed before Levi exited. Instead of letting the two boys in, he closed the door on her. Eren, of course, was prepared to ask what had occurred. Instead, Levi beat him to the punch. "You can either follow me to tell you what happened or you can stand right there. Either way, you're not permitted into her room for now."

Neither asked a question. Not with Levi hinting that he would give the two every bit of information he had learned. The two accepted the first choice and trailed along behind him to the abandoned dining hall. They sat down, Armin and Eren in front of the captain.

With a sigh, Levi started what he knew would be a long conversation. At least- if either one of them decided to intervene every chance they got.

"I interviewed Ackerman. We needed a report on what exactly happened to her. The excursion was on the third, and she wasn't found until the twenty-eighth. On the first day, she stated her horse was spooked by a Titan. The horse rode a quarter mile away before she decided to use her gear and jump off of it. The horse continued away from her, and we still don't know where it is."

He had expected one of them to break his speech, especially with his odd, choppy sentences-

"By that point, she was far from the rest of us, and she would waste all her remaining fuel before she reached us. She decided to travel on foot until she found a reason to use her gear."

-but the two were listening intently, obviously worried about their dear friend.

"By sunset, she knew there was no point trying to locate any of the soldiers, as the mission had already ended about two hours prior. She tried to hide by shooting herself to the top of a tree and hiding within the branches. It worked until the afternoon, when a few Titans had steadily surrounded her. She was able to kill five off, but she was beyond halfway empty on gas."

It was nothing short of a miracle she was still alive. And the thought became crystal clear with the idea that she made it most of the month without any use of her gear.

"She resorted to going deeper into the forests, where the larger trees were. She again hid herself in the trees, but this time she was much higher, and she had lost the trail of all the Titans following her. She was able to stay secluded until the fourth day, but by then she needed to eat. As with any of us, she was hungry but didn't want to waste gas on getting down, along with risking the possibility of running into a Titan. So she waited until night before coming down. It was a poor effort she explained, but she killed a deer with one of her swords. By that point, she was pretty much out of gas."

It was a harsh reality setting in. None of them wanted to believe she lived through it.

"She ate all she could and then returned to the top of the tree. She waited until day eight to go back down again. It was night, and she hunted out another deer to eat. Once she had done that, she looked for any sort of cavern within the bottoms of the trees to hide in. A Titan wouldn't be able to see her in one of those. But on the tenth day, after not exiting the one she found, a single Titan had found her. It pulled her out with its hand. She was able to cut off its fingers with her gear still attached, but her ribs were severely damaged, and she fell a good five to seven feet awkwardly to the ground."

He tried not to look directly at Eren or Armin, but it was hard when both boys stayed staring at him.

"She was able to outrun this Titan. She said it was pretty stupid, which was why it was dumb enough to look at the bottom of trees in the first place. She found another place to hide in until the twelfth day, but she was starving now. She would have to try and go and hunt for something."

His sentences remained choppy- just as she tried to forcefully retell her own tale.

"She waited until night as usual, and she found a third deer to kill. She brought back what she could to the tree, and she remained there safely until the seventeenth day. She was out of food once more, but it had only been two days. She had thoughts to go out that night, but she fell asleep. She woke up once the sun was just coming up, and she tried to search anyway. Another Titan found her, but her ribs still hurt, and she complained that it was hard enough to stand, let alone try and kill a deer. And now she had a Titan to deal with. She was able to quickly retreat back into the tree, but she resorted to squishing herself against the back wall. The Titan tried to reach in and grab her, but she was too far back, and it's hand was too fat to fit in any further."

The boys remained mute, and their expressions were as attentive as ever, while their eyes showed the un-shed tears of worry for their dear friend.

"The Titan remained outside until the nineteenth day. She said it went to sleep at night, but she was too scared to try and run. So she remained inside, barely able to sleep with the fear of the Titan trying to grab her in her mind constantly. On the nineteenth night, she finally decided to run. Once the Titan was asleep, she escaped and immediately went to find something else to hunt. She said it took much longer than the others, but she was able to find another deer. She then found a third tree, much farther than from the other two. So much that the sun was starting to rise once she found it.

"She was able to hide until the twenty fourth day. Only a day had passed without food, but she waited it out until the twenty sixth day. She said she was out hunting for a deer when our men found her. From a report the men turned in, they explained she was utterly distraught. She shook violently in their grasp as they tried to guide her to the horse. But... her statement doesn't line up with the ones who found her. She says she was out hunting, while they say she was ready to fall out. It is my own opinion that she was made it through this ordeal on adrenaline. Not the whole time but particularly after the last encounter with the Titan.

"I believe there are other things she's leaving out. It's logical, though." A pause, the first elongated one so far. "Emotionally, she's not fine. She was terrified for twenty six days that she was going to die, one way or the other. She was starving herself for most of the time, too scared to go out- even at night- for her fear of the Titans. And right off the bat she was injured. Right now even our medical experts say she's in pain from injures in her ribs, her legs, her arms, and just about anywhere else you want to name."

He was slowly forming his next thoughts as he went. After all, he had just finished the interview. He hadn't had time to think about a concrete hypothesis.

He leaned in, not quite looking directly at either one of them though. "Just find out whatever else you can. But if it's too traumatic for her, leave it be." He went to stand up. "Don't want her crying all over again."

They once again entered the room to a disheveled Mikasa, unable to sleep but nevertheless crying uncontrollably into a pillow.

The two boys grimaced as they side-glanced at each other. Mikasa was the strongest person they knew; how were they supposed to do anything when she was so... gone? The thought quickly vanished from Eren's mind. He placed a hand on Armin's shoulder, and their grimaces slowly turned into hesitant smiles.

Their answer lied in their own confusion.

With careful steps and soft, calming voices, the boys began comforting their friend.

Mikasa was the strongest person they knew- and they would get past this.

 _ **End**_


End file.
